Council ends free parking to balance books

A council has ruled that people will have to pay to use some of its car parks for the first time from 2025.

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, North Somerset Council voted to charge people £3.50 at eight car parks in Portishead, Clevedon and Nailsea.

The new charges will be rolled out next year and the council hopes to raise a million pounds as it seeks to balance its books to avoid issuing a Section 114 Notice.

Some traders fear the decision will harm local ventures - including the open air pool in Portishead.

In most car parks affected, it will cost £1 to park for an hour, £1.50 to park for two hours, £2.50 for three hours, and £3.50 for a whole day.

But car parks at the Portishead Lake grounds and in some on-street locations in Clevedon will cost more.

All parking charges would apply from 09:00 to 18:00, Monday to Saturday

"This is going to have a big effect on our volunteers," said Barbara Thatcher from the Portishead Pool Community trust.

"Because they give their time freely and if they have to pay to park outside then a lot of people are going to decide that they are not going to do it," she continued.

"We have probably 30-40 volunteers working here, they give their time for free, so it's bound to impact on them wanting to come if they've got to pay to park," said Andy Thatcher, a volunteer at the pool.

"This will affect the residents who live here because if people don't want to pay to park, they'll park down the street," said volunteer Ruth Smith.

It is estimated that the parking charges will bring in just over a million pounds a year for the council, but more than half of that will be spent on upkeep and covering the borrowing costs of introducing the charges.

Council leader Mike Bell said the parking hikes are "unavoidable."

"I'd rather not be doing this. If we could keep free parking then we would, absolutely.

"The fact is that our financial position has changed, we're in a financial emergency.

"We cannot afford any more to subsidise parking in some of our towns when that's at the expense of other services like repairing roads, public transport and so on."

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